G.R. No. 40399 & G.R. No. 72255 February 6, 1990
MARCELINO C. AGNE, ET AL., petitioners, vs. THE DIRECTOR OF LANDS, PRESENTACION AGPOON GASCON, JOAQUIN GASCON and HON. ROSALIO C. SEGUNDO, Presiding Judge, Court of First Instance of Pangasinan, Branch V, respondents. ( G.R. No. 40399 ) / MARCELINO C. AGNE, ET AL., petitioners, vs. HON. INTERMEDIATE APPELLATE COURT, PRESENTACION AGPOON GASCON and JOAQUIN GASCON, respondents. (G.R. No. 72255)

FACTS

The land in dispute was originally part of the riverbed of the Agno-Chico River. In 1920, a major flood caused the river to change its course, abandoning its original bed. The petitioners, who were the owners of lands bordering this abandoned riverbed, entered and occupied the respective portions of the dried-up land adjacent to their properties. They introduced improvements, such as irrigation canals and agricultural crops, and possessed the land openly and adversely. Subsequently, in 1937, a Free Patent and Original Certificate of Title No. 2370 were issued in the name of Herminigildo Agpoon, covering the same abandoned riverbed. Upon his death, his daughter, respondent Presentacion Agpoon Gascon, inherited the land and was issued Transfer Certificate of Title No. 32209 in 1960.
In 1971, the Gascon spouses filed an action for recovery of possession against the petitioners, asserting their registered ownership. The petitioners defended their claim, arguing they acquired ownership by accretion under Article 370 of the Spanish Civil Code, which was the law in force in 1920 when the river changed its course. While that case was pending, petitioners filed a separate action in 1974 for annulment of title and reconveyance. The trial court dismissed the petitioners’ complaint and ruled in favor of the Gascons in the recovery case, a decision affirmed by the Intermediate Appellate Court.

ISSUE

The core issue is whether the petitioners, as riparian owners, acquired ownership by accretion over the abandoned riverbed upon the change of the river’s course in 1920, thereby rendering the subsequent free patent and title issued to Herminigildo Agpoon void.

RULING

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the petitioners, reversing the decisions of the lower courts. The legal logic is anchored on the law of accretion and the nature of public land grants. Under Article 370 of the Spanish Civil Code, the beds of rivers which are abandoned because the river changes its course belong to the owners of the lands adjoining the full length of the banks on each side. The change of course in 1920 was a natural, permanent avulsion, not a gradual accretion. Consequently, the abandoned riverbed ceased to be part of the public domain and became private property of the adjoining riparian owners by operation of law at that moment.
Since the petitioners and their predecessors had already acquired a vested right of ownership by 1920, the land was no longer alienable public land when the free patent was issued to Agpoon in 1937. The Director of Lands had no authority to dispose of land that was already private property. A free patent issued over land that has ceased to be part of the public domain is null and void. The subsequent certificate of title derived from it is likewise void and conveys no valid title. The Court ordered the reconveyance of the land to the petitioners, as the true owners, and the cancellation of the Gascons’ title. The Torrens system does not protect a title issued based on a void patent.